The EV ARC: park it wherever you want, and move it when you have a better idea. (Envision Solar photo)

Every so often you come across a “why didn’t I think of that?” idea. Such is the case with Envision Solar’s new EV ARC, which is a portable, stand-alone solar parking space. You don’t need trenching, foundations, building permits or grid connections. If you decide to move the space, all you need is a forklift.

Lots of Options

The car charges on a ballasted pad (able to keep the unit upright in 120-mph winds) that fits within a standard parking space. The 10,000-pound charger takes minutes to set up, has a 22-kilowatt-hour battery back-up, and can store 16 kwh per day. With stored power, you should still be able to charge on cloudy days. Also aiding in that effort is a tracking system that rotates the array to grab up to 25 percent more sunlight. The only sticking point is the, gulp, $40,000 price.

The EV ARC uses batteries from All-Cell in Chicago, and solar modules from Mage. The company is agnostic on the actual EV charging technology—early units have Eaton chargers. Given the system’s capacity, the solar unit can fully charge one EV a day, but parked in a store parking lot, for instance, it’s more likely to give four cars quarter charges.

Will the Cost Pencil Out?

Desmond Wheatley, president and CEO of Envision, agreed in an interview that some may find the price point off-putting at first, but he argues that over time his units pencil out as on par with standard grid-connected chargers.

“We believe the cost points will end up being incredibly competitive,” he said. “First, you will get half the cost off your federal tax liability, and there’s no need to dig a trench, install a transformer, face demand charges or, indeed, any bills from the utility—it’s instant EV charging.”

Wheatley also says that he can halve the cost with the big orders that could allow a city to have an overnight electric vehicle infrastructure. If there’s demand, he also said that cheaper versions could be built for sunny regions like Arizona without the battery backup. Wireless charging is also being investigated, and a model with that enabled is likely in the near term.

Wireless is Coming

“Wireless charging makes the full circle,” Wheatley said. “Now you’re charging from a sustainable platform, and you’re not even plugging in—just driving onto the pad.”

Thinking about the EV ARC brings up all kinds of intriguing issues. Might the units, portable as they are, be stolen? Envision has thought of that, and there is both tracking telemetry and hard-core anchoring options available. “People could show up with a flatbed and steal the EV ARC, yes,” Wheatley said. “But it’s so big, where would they hide it? It’s not a small theft. And with a forklift or something like that, you can just as easily steal a car.”

Desmond Wheatley's TED talk on video here delves into this theories about EV charging. "We are living in one of the most exciting eras in human history," he says:

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Yes, very pricy for what you get. Instead, I like this drop-shipped prefab structure with PV panels on the roof that not only provides a shelter but could conceivably do just as well at charging an EV . . .

I don't want to get into politics but there is a fight between China and one other country as to who will rule the 21st century (hint: its not the USA)

I'm a a patriotic American, but in this case I happen to be rooting for Russia, and the Russian Orthodox Church.

Solar power is an idea whose time has come. Hopefully, incremental efficiency increases will happen (disclaimer: I make money when people buy Solar Panels - I don't own any myself, however I'm in favor of more of them for obvious reasons, some of them selfish).

AS far as Steve Jobs goes, people seem to need to worship an Idol. Elon Musk has taken his place. But Jobs was never a technical guy, he just knew what would sell.

With the total lack of charging infrastructure in my neck of the woods, if I was rich, I would actually consider buying one of these in order to charge my car at work. I wonder if my employer would allow it in the parking lot though.

Thanks for the link. That is super cheap. Can't believe that price. 2 years, it was about $2/W before incentives on the raw panesl. That is pretty cheap. I don't see why anyone wouldn't install them on every roof with that price....

The Russian Orthodox church? Bill, you are crazy. What the heck are you even talking about? Don't answer that . . . I don't really care.

@MMF, Yeah PV panel prices crashed. Some 10 years ago I self installed a 2.5KW system and it cost me around $20K in parts. I am now installing a 6WK system and it is around $12K in parts (including all the racks, inverters, wire, conduit, disconnects, etc.) Twice the size and half the price. Oh . . . and I get a 30% tax-credit on that $12K so effectively drops the price to around $8.5K. And that will provide me transport fuel for the next 25 years. And provide power for my house. Green energy? The green is the money I'm saving. LOL.

Answer? What was the question? There is an article about solar charging station and then you start talking about a war between China and the Russian Orthodox church as to who will rule the 21st century. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that finds that a bit odd.

Outstanding idea. When an idea is self contained/sustained without needing the blessing of permits, i dont see why this wont take off and sell like hotcakes. Business located in stripmalls/shopping centers and the local corner store can have something like this. Im anxious to see a mass roll out and implementation.

@vdiv....yea fit it in the trunk or just keep that long extension cord from your door >:0

I'm going to guess, Spec, that the embedded YouTube video featuring Desmond Wheatley's TED Talk - where the speaker ponders which country or entity will have the greatest influence on the planet over in the next 100 years - is what Bill is attempting to quantify.

But, yes . . . the Russian Orthodox Church? I'm baffled by the supposed analogy as well. The video clip was about clean energy technology and what it can do for us: a very persuasive argument presented in plain English. If anything, it quickly dismissed the relevance of the typical Cold War era militaristic influences. Maybe this side-stepping of "History Channel Grunt" is what made the presentation unsatisfying in Bill's eyes.

As for "selling like hotcakes," Justin, I like the idea of this thing as much as you do. But $40K hotcakes are . . . well . . . not selling as well as . . . uh . . . more competitively priced hot cakes. I'm guessing that the 10,000 pound weight, ability to withstand hurricane winds AND the ability to fold/deploy is what makes it so expensive. The article didn't make mention of it but, I'm guessing, that mechanical tracking of the panels (like Envision's larger units) is present and that would certainly add to the cost.

The point has been made that individual components (PV panels, related hardware/electronics, batteries, EVSE) of high quality could be sourced independently and combined into a unit that would do the job just as well . . . and for a fraction of the retail price presented by Envision.

MTTP charge controllers, for instance, allow most PV panels to operate at maximum efficiently and without the expense/complexity of mechanical tracking. While the shading of cars parked underneath a gently moving panel array might take away some of the EV ARC's "wow" factor, dispensing with that feature alone could probably save thousands of dollars.

The reference to the church is as in a Bulwark against "Globalism", "Brave New World", "New World Order".. This agenda is only possible if independent Nation States are crushed.

Libya tried to play nicey-nice with the west, and merely got foreigners inside his country examining his weak points for a future invasion. When the near genocide of Black Libyans was transpiring as a result of this foreign invasion, the Lame-Stream-Media was dead silent.

Now, this program of crushing independent nation states is running into a snag:

Syria is not going to be as easy for two basic reasons:

1). Assad is currently winning. 2). Russia has a base in Tartus.

Should Russia more fully cooperate with NATO, for instance having missile batteries placed on their borders? Putin is having none of that. He also regularly decries the West's lack of morals. When asked how come he won't support US backed Al Quaida 'freedom' fighters, he says, These People Eat Organs of other People.. How do you Claim they are Civilized? He even forces Medvedev to go to church with him (Medvedev officially became a memeber of the Russian Orthodox church at 23).

The tone of the above paragraphs should show there are more and more people who will not automatically go along when the 'powers that be' tell us something is "for our own good".

They REALLY got people upset when, recently in Naperville, Illinois the police department arrested anyone who would not permit Spying (smart) Meters at their houses. It has already been adjudicated that removal of a smart meter with another accurate "Utility Grade" Meter is absolutely NOT Theft of Service. The homeowner is not trying to Cheat the utility, the homeowner is just trying to protect himself from being cheated.

The fact that both Men and Women have been man-handled by the police shows there is more at stake here than just 'robustifying the grid'. If they wanted to make the 'grid' more reliable they wouldn't be shutting down power plants right and left across the country. Smart Meters are just managing the Decline, which is their only legitimate function. But its a function not many homeowners are going to want.

They should sell a version of this that just requires the tracker pole to be set in concrete. Site installation cost for that would probably be less than manufacturing and shipping that ballasted base. The rest could be the same since the biggest cost savings is avoiding the grid connection altogether. I am also puzzled as to why there are so many wires dangling from the panels. Have they not heard of cable dressing?

I'm sure the point that Spec is making, Bill, is that you haven't really spent any time on this particular thread actually discussing the pro and cons of this particular piece of gear. The rest of us seem to be focused on the opinion that its a laudable idea but, perhaps, this current iteration or brand is a bit overpriced.

Instead, you've launched into a string of far flung news stories - some might declare bordering on the conspiratorial - that have absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand.

My theory is that you took issue with the first minute or so of Desmond Wheatley's TED Talk video, implying that his take on what the next century has in store for us is naively optimistic and that we, instead, should be thinking about anything BUT renewable energy solutions or, at the very least, the solar gadgets he makes that he's subtly hawking in front of that live audience.

It's obvious to you, Bill, that all that goes on in the world is important, that we should be aware of it and have opinions on it. Actually, I couldn't agree more. I also happen to agree with what some - not all, but some - of what you advance on these far flings topics at times. But, in a web place called Plug In Cars, does it really even matter what you and I think about any of this stuff?

If there is little that any of us can advance on these threads that actually relates to the article topic, then it starts to get a little old and rather fast. I welcome your input regarding electrons/kiloWatts aspects of this thing or even if you think the Envision EV ARC is junk or not. Let's please save Vladimir Putin and the Syrians for a time when it's actually part of the story at hand (ie: are they deploying CHAdeMO or SAE-CCS L-3s in war-torn Aleppo?) or - perhaps - for another blog altogether.

This is one of the most woefully misinformed speakers I've heard in a long time, someone tell him the Mini Me series of movies were not documentaries.

California blackouts 10 years ago were deliberately caused by Enron to artificially jack up electric cost. His emphasis on San Diego having plenty of energy is a bit laughable seeing as the large amounts of electricity coming from Mexico (without the pollution controls that would be required in the USA), and California in general becoming a net importer of hydropower from oregon/washington, Nevada, and Nuclear from Arizona, and generating less and less of their own power all the time. , The loss of 2 GW of power from the two SONGS Nuclear units and the huge decommissioning/burocratic cost means the already high electric rates in the area can only get more so. The only Coal Fired plants I'm aware of in Southern California are very old LADWP ones soon to be decommissioned, and they aren't a big factor in the current energy mix anyway.

His desire to cover 800 million parking spots with solar would make me a rich man. As long as he pays for it. Interestingly, since wind power doesn't really kill that many birds I'd think he'd at least mention it, but he doesn't have a dog in that hunt apparently. He also thinks waste to power is something only Scotland is doing. It is also happening in Lewiston, NY with no fanfare. (along with many other places in the country)..With California charging 34 cents/kwh on tier 4, he may get his wish seeing as more and more homeowners are almost forced to go to Solar at those rates.

As far as Normandy being a huge battle, possibly it was only to Americans, Scotts, British, and Canadians. In the totality of ww II it was pretty minor. We only lost 400,000 in the whole war, mostly I'm told in the Battle of the Bulge. The Battle of St. Petersburg had 1,100,000 casualties. There are plenty of uglies re: the world wars that I don't care to get into here. I just hold Winston Churchil in much lower regard than this speaker, especially in his younger years.

California's "Best and Brightest" apparently are leaving the state at increasing rates, seeing as confiscatory tax rates are getting more so all the time. These people are not dumb.

It's apparent to most people who would be watching the above embedded video that Desmond Wheatley wasn't standing in front a live audience to give a definitive oral history of WWII. He makes a passing reference to D-Day and you go off the deep end about combat casualties in Leningrad. Why are you so obsessed with trolling this thread with mid 20th century world conflict minutia?

While it wasn't on my agenda for this morning, I sat in from of the screen for about 21 minutes to fact check all you accuse of this man. I could find no place where he implied "San Diego having plenty of energy." The message was basically to swap fossil fuels for renewable. You may not agree that this is the guy to help do it or even if it's a particularly good idea, but that's essentially what he's talking about.

I do agree with you that Enron was corrupt to the core and that those people deserved all the prison time (perhaps more) that they got. But for you all but blame the entire energy mess witnessed there over the past 70 years squarely on this man's shoulders borders on the extreme and fantastic.

It's apparent that Mr. Wheatley makes money by selling solar panels (and, yes, thanks, once again, for reminding us how your stock portfolio is structured,) but I didn't hear a wisp of anti-wind power rhetoric. Where did that come from?

My hat is off to Lewistown, NY, for their efforts in generating power from waste. But is it the responsibility of any speaker to read down a laundry list of every community around the planet who has done something positive in this regard, so as not to offend? Citing an example or two - perhaps one the speaker has witnessed up close - is typically sufficient for most people to get the point.

I'm also surprised that you had absolutely nothing to say about the first 5 minutes of the speech, which dealt with the pro/cons of water desalinization. Were you busy fact checking recently declassified Area 51 documents while this was occurring?

Incidentally, the same day that those Area 51 documents were declassified was also the 36th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death. I'll ask you to tie in these amazing coincidences - and the apparent Scottish conspiracy to kill the King of Rock 'n Roll - into your reply here.

Silliness aside, lets stick to what I say.. I'm aware of SD's desalinization plant. He mentioned blackouts several times, but I'm sure as a reporter you're aware of Enron Wheeling brokers laughing back and forth over "Grandma stuck in the Elevator". Or maybe you're not. There was an uncharacteristically candid expose of them on Frontline a few years back Before the stock price fell. I'm still kicking myself over not shorting the stock.

Unfortunately, they will also need a De Alpha/Beta/Gamma emitter plant in the not too distant future ( there are some things that can be done here, after all, but they are far from perfected ).

The basic point I mention in all these posts is that the BIG EXPERTS claim to be concerned about what should be nonexistent or trivial problems, and they ignore the Elephants in the middle of the room, for instance, 1/2 the Sea Lions dying, or the bee, and Salmon dieoff, or Autism going from 1 in 40000 to 1 in 40 and falling, and Altzheimer's skyrocketing, Or even indirect problems such as forrest fires getting too hot to fight (Aluminum, Barium and Strontium make the forests act more like a second stage rocket booster), ozone holes (causing Sun induced burning), methane releases (which cause ships to go to the bottom intact due to lack of bouyancy from Methane bubbling). But it was not fully mentioned what Axe this guy had to grind.. In general I'm in favor of desalinization and can see few downsides, other than current technology uses relatively large amounts of energy for the water produced. But it is fine for desert areas certainly. Ghadafy probably would have had 3 going by now or in the near future had Nato not "Meddled". So, sorry, I'm dealing in hard facts here. I can't help that if the information is new to you, that you're confusing it with Elvis, MiniMe, or Loch Ness.

So, your saying that because he because doesn't describe in vivid detail all these horrible things regarding disease and pollution (which I'm sure he's aware of, would agree with both of us that they exist and really are problems,) that he's some sort of warmed-over softy whose simply looking for easy applause lines? If he did what you think is absolutely essential, he simply would have emptied the room.

He's got 20 minutes or so to speak and briefly recaps the general gist of the human-produced problems, not wasting a lot of time reciting the big laundry list of history, as you think is absolutely necessary. He clearly alluded that centralized fossil-based energy providers are largely to blame for much of our woes. Wisely, though, he didn't squander an inordinate amount of his limited speaking time reliving old court case outcomes and knew that he didn't need to before making his main point. As you often like to remind, the room isn't full of dummies.

Now, I don't know why I'm spending a lot of time defending this guy from your barbs, Bill, other than you thinking he didn't have enough 20th century battle casualty statistics on the tip of his tongue, didn't have the dry delivery of a retired 4-star General testifying before a congressional committee, that his accent or haircut bothered you, or that (legitimately) his particular PV structures might a bit out-priced for the current market.

The only thing you haven't actually told me or anyone else here is why you think the general idea of solar PV shades - his or anyone else's - assembled over parking lots to recharge EVs is such a bad idea.

The general tenor of your post is that you seem to have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. I'm expressing my opinion that the man is either woefully misinformed, or equally likely, is selling something, and is actually presenting material with a bit of a lack of candor. I'm allowed to do that, and I'm not taking any thing he is saying personally. But perhaps I've seen too many TED symposium videos that have rubbed me the wrong way.

If you've read my material I am in favor of solar parking lot cells, for both technology advancement, and selfish reasons. As long as people in general are not unduly coerced. For those who want them, and will pay for them, fine. They will be a much better value in the southwest of the USA in any event, since that is where the sun is.

"I've seen too many TED symposium videos that have rubbed me the wrong way."

They're structured for a younger - but far from naive - audience, Bill. If you're an old white guy and spout out the rhetoric (be it to the political left or right of center) in the fashion of an old white guy carrying around the baggage of history everywhere you go (and, yeah, I'm one as well with some of those failings, so I can comment critically on them as a whole,) the TED Talk audience demographic will just freeze up and tune you out. I can hardly blame them.

They're more interested in hearing about possible solutions than a detailed recounting who did what to mess things up back in the day. They either already know who did the messing up and are not really caring about the names and what side they were on, or they're simply resigned to the fact that the status quo messed up (dates, locations, nationalities and other related statistics being of only marginal importance in the grand scheme of things) and are, instead, simply wanting to hear someone provide a glimmer of hope as to what can be done about it. That some of them are also selling stuff is to be expected.

Younger People are going to have to remain flexible and have some of their "Belief Systems" challenged, Ben. What they do with that knowledge is up to them, but in general demographically more of them will fare percentage wise better than their parents. This gets into the four different types of cyclic generations and I'll leave it at that. I pay very close attention to (key word here) Proven experts in the field since I have many dollars at Stake. I try as hard as I can to understand difficult concepts, and wouldn't dream of criticizing people I'm trying to learn from just because I don't quite yet understand the full picture. We are at another juncture where money is going to be transferred. As far as younger people listening to me, some do listen carefully to what I say, while most probably don't. No skin off my back. Very few listen here. A few more listen on InsideEvs.

But other than the above paragraph, I do this for relaxation. Serious concerns in the above paragraph are much more like work. My blogging here is just to bump ideas off of fellow EV owners mostly, and for others who feel that, although they don't own an EV still have opinions others should listen to. So I tend to explain more fully EV concepts for relaxation. The above paragraph will be dismissed as gobbldygook, until the future arrives. But, since its work for me I will hopefully be properly positioned. Anyone else is free to do whatever work or preparation they feel is necessary in their personal finances, or do no work at all, their choice.

That is why I'm unconcerned as to being understood on paragraph one. The only one who must understand the true situation for my personal finances dependent on my views is me and my family.

Bill and Ben: I enjoy reading posts from both of you. The last few exchanges have been interesting to say the least. However, Bill did clarify that he is in favor of the solar powered canopy chargers, so that's a common point of agreement. This is a forum regarding EV subjects, and some of us were a bit thrown off by the policitcal nature the discussion took, but it was fascinating all the while. As a middle aged white guy, I can identify with the historical context issue. Ben is right that younger people will quickly tune you out if you don't hook them right away(and sometimes details are tedius). However, us old geezers have seen enough to recognize that history is a guide and we do need to know it so that way we can (hopefully) avoid making the same mistakes our predecessors made.

If you read my posts carefully, I'm in favor of them, however not to the cheerleading statge, and not necessarily this particular company to the exclusion of others.

I also disagree with the several statements about this generation of young people. I find they are much easier to discuss things with, as a general rule. Its older people I usually have trouble getting points across. But then I've hinted at this many times.

One 21 year old Electrical Engineering student (Ben) gave me a nice complement at the Tesla store in Toronto (Mississauga) today, saying "Hey you really know your stuff!". hehe.

Incidentally, this guy (Ben) told me that, in Ontario, the government is giving any one who installs solar panels 80 cents per kilowatt hour on any juice generated. (This was jaw dropping to me ==> I thought Germany held the world wide record of temporarily offering 50 cents/kwh).

Ben was very mad at this since we compared rates and found that, whereas Canadians have traditionally paid half of what we do in Buffalo, NY, their rates are currently higher, than I pay. He was (semi) steaming mad at the Bonanza companies who installed solar panels were getting and he and his family were being forced to pay for it. (This discussion took play in front of the Tesla secretary in the waiting room. He was waiting for Service to be completed on his Dad's new model S).

I was non-judgmental. But I "heard" where he was coming from and said so.

Thanks for the reply Bill. Interesting that 2 decent men can have differing takes on young people and their attitudes. My son is 24 years old, has an extremely seasoned approach to anything he hears(skeptical but not cynical), always wants the historical background so that he can place the discussion in context. But then he's a very bright kid(went to undergraduate school, at a very "elite school " as they are known, in Central New York )and learned a lot about understanding all sides of an argument). Thankfully, I have not seen his basic approach change now after 2+ years in graduate school in So CA, seems to be his modus operandi. Most of his friends are like that too, but some are quite the opposite. Maybe it's not so much age/generational, but just personality differences that account for their take on things. On another note, how much solar panel conversion do you see in New York? I have actually noticed a few houses in rural NY with roof mounted panels, which surprised me at the time. I have seen a good amount of wind generated power in the Central NY area(Carousel Mall in particular benefits from it) but not much solar. Seeing any, as I said, kind of surprised me. California is another story. While in San Francisco I happened to see a very high percentage(to me, anyway) of buildings with roof mounted solar panels. We have seen a decent amount in the San Diego area, but it's obvious that CA, in general, is taking solar seriously.

I believe that, contrary to Ontario's 80 cents / kwh, NY State mandates 6 cents / kwh, (as far as I know from either solar or wind) that's only in a broad difference once a year. In the meantime you can use the power company as your Piggy Bank, so then you're really getting 12 to 13 cents the vast majority of the time. The state and the fed govt provide the vast majority of the construction cost.. Maybe Brian can answer your questions better.